What a quiz bird that beast turned out to be. Clearly it wasn't identifiable, but it still showed enough to convince many to give it a try...
Once again, "anonymous" steals the show with the (sorta) correct guess of a SHRIKE...
Yes that is a Northern Shrike taken at Hillman Marsh (Pelee) this past November... Why would I keep such a horrible thing? Because I figured it'd be a darn good quiz photo and great for illustration as to just how misleading photos can be!
I'm pretty much out of quiz photos (as far as I can remember)... So it'll be a while before the highly irregular quiz returns, but thanks to all who took a stab at the pics!
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So how about this epic rarity weather? One of the sweetest looking wind flows I've seen from the south since Mid April 2012 - an event that brought a FORK-TAILED FLYCATCHER and an ELANIA to the Great Lakes, among dozens of other good looking rares..
Unfortunately it has probably occurred at the extreme WORST time of year for an event like this. It honestly doesn't get worse.. It's January 30th.....
Lets take a look at the maps anyways:
Winds flowing DIRECTLY from the gulf (heck, the keys) right into southern Ontario!!!!!!!!!! This is a rare event to have direct winds flowing this far...
Crazy storm taking shape as seen on Radar...
POWERFUL Jet feeding the thing... These events cause Tornadoes in the spring (and maybe some today).. And these events cause EPIC RARE in the bird world in the spring... But could anything possibly happen on Jan 30?! Probably not...
Looking slightly ahead at the storm on the surface maps:
Roughly current - disorganized yet very strong with a 989 and a 984 split centre of low pressure.. That's strong for being messy.. I'm hearing that this sucker is holding a LOT of moisture due to its connection to the gulf as well...
Starts to take shape over NE Ontario and powers up to a VERY strong 976mb low... REALLY strong for inland in our neck of the woods
Darn thing kicks it into overdrive over Quebec lowering out to 969mb.. Crazy, although I can only assume it must be feeding from the ocean to get this strong with a centre over land... Cool stuff
Too bad this wasn't late April or we would require safety helmets to protect ourselves from vagrants dropping out of the skies... Welcome to late January...
As per always, Dr. Masters does a cooler job with weather talk that I, but he doesn't mention the birds ;)
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This will be really interesting to see if anything is displaced (anywhere)... Maybe even the east coast (NJ, NY, MA, NS or NL) could be areas to watch to learn about if any vagrancy is possible in late January (from the south)...
Of course there is a "back side" of the storm that is cold as well, but I'm not sure just HOW different that might be than any other winter storms we get --- other than the fact that the system is a MONSTER once it shapes up..
B
I'm glad you are out of quiz photos. (lol).
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